Wakefield Council's decision to budget £300k for City Fields consultant upheld

Wakefield Council wants to clean up the old Park Hill Colliery in Stanley, make it fit for development and then offer it to the private sector.

It's envisaged the plan would become part of the sprawling City Fields estate on the eastern side of Wakefield, with 800 homes likely to be built on the land.

A trio of Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors had called the decision in to be scrutinised at a public meeting on Friday, after the £300,000 was signed off behind closed doors by the authority's Labour leader, Denise Jeffery, on July 2.

They'd cited concerns around the size of the sum involved.

But explaining the move, senior council officer Tom Stannard told the meeting that he was "very confident" the cost of the scheme would likely be covered by the eventual sale of the land.

He said: "I think we can expect quite positive results in terms of interest in the site.

"We've every confidence that the land receipts the council will receive from this will offset the cost of this contract."

Mr Stannard said the decision to budget £300,000 was supposed to have been made in public at a meeting of the council's Cabinet.

But after lockdown forced the postponement of all council meetings for around three months, the local authority made the decision in private because of the need to get on with the scheme, he added.

It was explained that the scheme will be funded by a government "home bonus" grant, which would have been withdrawn if unspent before a specific deadline.

Asked by councillors why the authority was outsourcing the work, rather than doing it in-house, Mr Stannard said: "The nature and scale of a project like this we'd have to divert a significant amount of internal capacity full time to this.

"If myself and a couple of other colleagues gave it 101 per cent of our attention, I daresay we'd probably do quite a good job on it, because we're experienced professionals in this type of work.

"But we don't have the luxury to dedicate that capacity.

"We'd have to backfill those roles and that would probably come at a similar cost."

The work, which is described as "complex" because of the nature of the site, will involve decontaminating the land and ensuring water and electricity lines can be installed to serve the new homes.

It's likely to take between two and three years, before the land can be sold off.

But Conservative councillor, Sam Harvey, one of the members who'd called in the decision for scrutiny, remained unconvinced.

She cited concerns around the tendering process and the prospect of a company from outside Wakefield taking on the work, though Mr Stannard said

"Just because we've got a government grant, doesn't mean we can spend it willy nilly," she said.

"We know our local area better than many. Will a company from London know it better than us?

"So why can't our quality in-house surveyors working within the council take on the project?"

Mr Stannard said that local companies were welcome to enter the tendering process and that he'd happily take suggestions from councillors about surveyors in the district who may be able to do the work.

Members voted in favour of upholding the original decision, with Coun Harvey the only member to vote against.

The 800 homes are included in the 2,500 that have been earmarked for City Fields over several years.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

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